Redemption and Recognition
by Blade-Serpent
Summary: The story of a team striving to learn more about life as a shinobi, and life in general. Crappy summary, slight AU, OCCentric. As usual, please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

Legal Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There would be much much more sex in it if I did.

Fan Disclaimer: Slight AU (Explained in a second) and DRIPPING with original characters. Pairings I like: Naru/Hina, Shika/Ino. Sasuke is a bastard, and Sakura is useless and whiny. You have been warned.

Author's Notes:

Slight adjustments to the universe: Itachi didn't kill the ENTIRE Uchiha clan, just most of it. I think that the odds that the whole clan was in the compound at the SAME night is pretty silly, so Itachi just murdered his parents and everyone else nearby cept Sasuke.

This fic starts out about 6 months after the 3 years starts. So Naruto leaves with Jiraiya and 6 months later, this stuff starts. Don't worry, I don't really think Naruto is capable of being away from Ichiraku for 3 years straight. He'll pop in. :D

Thanks to Alphacat, who owns Yowamushi (Last I checked, he wasn't sexoring him, alas) and is my awesome Assistant Author and Beta Reader.

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A man walked into an office. The office was highly unusual, being guarded by some of the most people people in the country. Of course, the owner of this office was **the** most powerful person in the country. The man walking in was almost as unusual. He had dark red hair, running back in a ponytail, which changed to a pure white about half way down, obviously bleached. He looked to be about in his mid twenties, and was wearing pretty standard clothing, jeans and a t-shirt, with a denim jacket over the shirt. Of course, this is standard only to a modern society. In a city of ninjas, his attire was slightly out of the ordinary. But, this city was known for tolerating several other fashion abominations, specifically bright orange jackets and dark green form fitting jumpsuits, so he really didn't stand out much. The man walked in, and stood next to the large formal desk. The woman behind the desk ignored him for a moment, and continued fiddling with her paperwork. This woman was known throughout the world for numerous reasons. She was the single best healer in history. She was the supreme commander of all of Fire country's ninjas. She was the Legendary Sucker, and one of the Densetsu no Sannin. She also had the largest set of breasts that most men would ever be fortunate enough to see. Oh, and she was strong enough to lift her massive oak desk and hurl it out the nearby window. With one hand.

_...She's ignoring me. Why is she ignoring me? If she heard about the less than stellar mission results than she might be pissed. But that's not her style: she'd scream, holler, and punch me through some walls. This is starting to freak me out. I remembered to get dressed properly...Right? Yep, pants still there. Zipper is check. She's still ignoring me. If she wasn't the hokage, I'd say she hadn't noticed me. But that's impossible, the doors are loud, and I wasn't even trying to be quiet. Wait, she's not even writing anything. She's just sitting there. What the hell... This is so weird. Wait... what's that sound- Oh god._

"...Tsunade-sama." The man said. The woman failed to respond. "Tsunade-sama!" He repeated, louder. When this too failed to gather a response, his eye twitched for a moment. "**Tsunade-sama! WAKE UP!**"

Tsunade, finally rising from her slumber, raised her head from the desk and gracefully articulated, "Muh... wha?" The man standing there looked absolutely... well, not quite disgusted. Exasperated would be a good word. Tsunade shook her head a bit, and said, "Mm. Report, shinobi." The man responded, "Ok. But you don't get to be TOO pissed at me. You were snoring." Tsunade shot him her infamous Glare of Ultimate Doom, "Yamato, if you bungled one simple diplomatic mission..."

"Ehhh... they wouldn't make good allies anyway." At this point, Tsunade's eye twitched. Dangerously. Many knew to flee for the hills upon seeing this minor muscle tic. Yamato was either very confidant of his abilities, stupid, or not paying attention. The correct answer was D), Bluffing out his ass. He continued, "About 5 minutes after I got there, I found a group of bullies using techniques to beat on a defenseless little kid." _Well. Not really. I think I'll leave out that I thought he was a girl. And that it was 6 on 1 and he beat 3 of them down._ "I ended up helping him, because I'm not about to let a little kid get beaten on. Turns out later that the bullies' little ring leader happened to be the village elder's son. Bit of a diplomatic oops."

Tsunade stared at him, "I don't think there would be anything wrong with making sure the elder's son doesn't beat up a small child."

Yamato scratched the back of his head a bit, looking obviously nervous. "I might have been a little... enthusiastic..." _He wasn't THAT badly hurt. I only burned MOST of the skin off that arm._

Tsunade, still staring dangerously, growled, "You... you probably **pulverized** the village elder's son! On a mission to get them to be allies with us! Great. I'm going to have to send our best negotiators out just to make amends."

Yamato, now highly concerned with his personal safety, averted his gaze from the hokage's eyes. "Well... I might have... helped-the-kid-blackmail-the-elder's-son-and-I-took-him-back-with-me-and-he's-waiting-in-the-lobby."

Tsunade blinked. And then blinked again.

Yamato swallowed, heavily. _I could make it to the window. She's not THAT fast. I could totally get to the window and be out of here. Being a rogue wasn't that bad; being a missing-nin probably isn't that much worse. Better than the certain death that I face here. She'll show my skull to academy students._

Tsunade's eye twitched again. "You... incompetent... they don't HAVE words for how STUPID you are. You... blackmailed the elder's son... basically **abducted** a boy from another village..." She stopped for a moment. "He's here? What do you expect us to DO with him?"

Yamato, thanking the gods that she finally asked something that he had thought about, responded, "Train him. I'll do it. The kid is **good**."

Tsunade, in spite of her rage, widened her eyes in awe, "You? Train someone! We've been trying to get you with a genin team for a year and a half!"

Yamato shrugged. "No reason for me to train useless little academy brats."

Tsunade sighed in disgust, "Just like Jiraiya. 'Too good' to train students. What's so different about this kid?"

Yamato grinned mischeviously, "I taught him Gokakyu and Housenka in the time it took to walk back from his village."

Tsunade's jaw practically dropped. "That's about a 6 day hike. You mean to tell me you taught this kid two upper level genin techniques in less than a week?"

Yamato nodded, "He has an amazing memory. If I didn't know he had his village bloodline, I'd suspect he had some sort of invisible sharingan."

Tsunade was silent for a moment. "...Why?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why. You're an idiot sometimes, but you do things for a reason. Why did you bring this kid back here?"

"...That village... it's pretty much just that one clan. And they have that feline bloodline, you know about that. This kid is the 'runt'. So he's basically a second class citizen there. He's picked on, just because he doesn't have the physical strength that most of them do. That's his **family** for christ's sake, and basically his cousin, was beating on him because his bloodline aspect was inferior. I... just can't stand that. ...You know why."

Tsunade nodded, after a moment. "... All right. We'll keep him. But he should still go to the academy to at least take the test."

Yamato shook his head. "No way, waste of time. He already knows two D-rank techniques, remember?" _She knows that as well as I do. The bargaining begins..._

"I don't care. No one gets a forehead protector without taking that exam."

Yamato just stared at her. "Except me." _...She wants something._

"The council will call him a security risk. I have to explain why we're taking him in."

"...How about because you don't want me to take my backed up five straight months of sick leave and vacation?"

This apparently took Tsunade by surprise. "Um. Well, that works, I guess. But you have to train him!"

Yamato smirked. "Deal." _Crazy old hag, I already said that._

They shook on it, and Tsunade let loose a triumphant grin. "Too bad that Konoha law doesn't have anything in place for official one on one tutoring between a jounin and a genin. Unless you want him on someone else's team..."

Yamato paled, his eyes widening. _Shit._ "...You just saddled me with a team."

Tsunade, still grinning as wide as her favorite little fox-child would, gleefully announced, "Yes! Yes I did. Congratulations, you'll meet with your brand new Team 5 on Monday morning. This was perfect timing, really. Graduation was yesterday, and we had 2 little geniuses left over."

Yamato, still utterly in shock, couldn't respond. _I was just suckered by the legendary sucker. ...I need a story. If this gets out, I will never live it down. I'm doomed. And oh, god. I have to put up with genins now. Every single day. And I'm going to have to put up with freaking C-rank missions! I see why all the other teachers saddle the brats with D-ranks, so they can go do REAL missions._

Tsunade interrupted Yamato's train of thought. "Now, if you don't have anything else to report, go get this kid registered. Luckily for you, Iruka is around the tower today, registering all the other graduates. Drag the boy down there and get him a forehead protector. Speaking of, what's his name?"

Yamato smirked. "Yowamushi."

Tsunade deadpanned, "They named him 'weakling'?"

Yamato shrugged again. "I told you they weren't very nice to him. Anyway. Off to registration I guess. Bye Hokage-sama."

He half bowed, really nothing more than a polite nod, then turned and walked out the large double doors to the waiting room. The doors remained open for a moment, and Tsunade's heart skipped a beat as she glanced past them. That was the single cutest child she had ever laid eyes on. He was the perfect mix of boyishness, girlishness, and, to be blunt, patheticness. He was even sitting there swinging his legs back and forth in the chair, looking utterly adorable, until he saw Yamato and hopped off. Every maternal instinct she had screamed at her to rush out there and hug the boy to bits. Luckily for the boy, she managed to control herself. With Tsunade, it would literally be 'to bits'. Yamato was obviously doing his best to appear cool, badass, and aloof. He was doing a decent job, considering that Yowa was tugging on his sleeve trying to get his attention. As they walked off, what seemed to be the boy's cat following, Tsunade could tell that he would adopt this boy, if he needed to. He'd apparently connected with the child during their short time together. Not that surprising, if one knew the similar family problems he had faced. However, she was quite sure the boy knew nothing of this. Tsunade was one of the very few in Konoha that knew; he really didn't like to talk about it. At all. She smiled. Some days she really loved this job.


	2. Chapter 2

Legal Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There would be much much more sex in it if I did.

Fan Disclaimer: Slight AU (Explained in a second) and DRIPPING with original characters. Pairings I like: Naru/Hina, Shika/Ino. Sasuke is a bastard, and Sakura is useless and whiny. You have been warned.

Author's Notes:

Slight adjustments to the universe: Itachi didn't kill the ENTIRE Uchiha clan, just most of it. I think that the odds that the whole clan was in the compound at the SAME night is pretty silly, so Itachi just murdered his parents and everyone else nearby cept Sasuke.

This fic starts out about 6 months after the 3 years starts. So Naruto leaves with Jiraiya and 6 months later, this stuff starts. Don't worry, I don't really think Naruto is capable of being away from Ichiraku for 3 years straight. He'll pop in. :D

Thanks to Alphacat, who owns Yowamushi (Last I checked, he wasn't sexoring him, alas) and is my awesome Assistant Author and Beta Reader.

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"Yama-kun! Where are we going?", the young boy asked with eager eyes.

Yamato, still looking and walking ahead, responded, "We're going to go find Iruka. He does the registration."

Yowa's eyes widened, "Registration... so they're letting me in?"

Yamato nodded. "Of course. I just had to... bend... certain details of our time in your village." _Like how I thought you were a girl at first glance._

Yowa smiled. "You didn't mention that you thought I was a girl."

Deciding to ignore that, Yamato walked on. _Hmph. Perceptive brat._

They walked in silence for a bit, and eventually, Yowa's small black cat emitted a low, yet piercing, "Merowwwrrr!" One could almost hear the thought bubble pop.

_And then if I followed up with - What? _Yamato blinked for a moment, then said, "Hmm? Oh, wait. Why are we over here? Registration is... right there." Upon saying this, Yamato whirled around and pointed towards a door they had just passed. Amusingly enough, the cat had stopped right at the door. Yowa decided it was probably... better not to comment. Yamato walked up to the door, labeled "Registration". Not deigning to knock, he opened the door and walked in. "Hey, Iruka! You in here?"

Iruka looked up from his paperwork, not sure whether to be relieved or annoyed at the distraction. Upon seeing both the adorable small child and equally adorable cat, he decided the former. "Well, who might this be?"

Yamato, slightly miffed at being ignored for the kid, responded, "This would be Yowa. Hokage-sama says to enter him in as a genin, along with all the other graduates. No, you don't get to ask why."

Yowa, looking toward the young man that apparently was Iruka, smiled and gave a timid wave. "Hi..."

Iruka looked the boy over. Pretty long hair for his age, a dark blue. Dyed, apparently, and in need of a redo, because Iruka could see the blonde roots peeking in. He looked a couple inches short of five feet tall. Under weight for his age, but not terribly so. Pretty close, though. His eyes were a bright, crystal blue... strikingly similar to Naruto's, Iruka thought. He was pretty... pretty thin! Yes, thin. Bad Iruka. Bad thoughts. "Hi there, Yowa. Ok, you can sit right there and we'll get started. I'll need your full name."

Yowa hopped onto the small stool near Iruka's desk, and said, "Masshiroke Yowamushi. Her name is Genki." He pointed towards his cat, which had demonstrated the amazing feline ability to sleep anywhere instantly. The surprising thing was that it had managed to get onto Yamato's head. Even more surprising was that he seemed to not have noticed until Yowa pointed.

"Gah!" With a shout, Yamato attempted to pull the cat off of his head. It was obvious that he had no prior experience with cats, as the disturbed feline instantly latched its claws into his scalp. "Ow! Baka neko! If you weren't on my head, I'd torch you SO fast!"

Looking concerned, Yowa decided to intervene. He meowed toward the now frightened cat, which quickly relaxed, somehow managed to slip out of Yamato's grip, and calmly hopped down from his head. Everyone could tell the cat was trying to say, 'Feh. Didn't want to sleep there anyway.'

Yamato, throughly furious from the feline invasion of his hair, quickly formed a hand seal. Yowa turned his big, sad eyes to Yamato, pouting, "Yama-kun..."

Victim to the kitty eyes, Yamato melted. "Fah. I'm gonna go take a nap. Come fetch me when you're done with the forms." And with that, he left the room. _Grrr. Stupid cat. If it wasn't Yowa's, I'd torch it. Wait... why do I care if it's his? It's only going to be a handicap in a fight anyway, better to get rid of the stupid thing now... there is NO way I can be getting attached to this little brat... Great. Teaching kids makes you go all soft. _Finding one of the various padded benches strewn throughout the Hokage's Tower, he laid down on one and napped. Or tried. _...Perfect. Wonderful time for family memories to come back..._ On the surface, Yamato appeared to be mostly asleep. However, his dreams were troubled by disturbing flashbacks of his youth. One flashback from an entire childhood's worth. What felt like a few long moments later, he opened his eyes. _...No. I'm not going to turn out like that. No way I will make my team suffer through the shit I had to. But... at the same time, I need to make sure they can defend themselves... Looks like it's life as usual. Walk the middle path._ With a deep breath, he attempted to calm himself, _Ok, Yamato. You can do this. You've got three highly talented kids anyway, they should be able to handle themselves... hopefully._

The noise of the nearby sliding door opening cause Yamato to jerk upwards. He looked over to see Iruka. "Umm, sorry to startle you."

Yamato waved it off, "Nah. Just an unpleasant dream."

Iruka shrugged, "Well, we've got one little issue, and then he's all set." Motioning for Yamato to follow, Iruka walked back into the room.

Yamato wondered aloud as he walked back into the room, "Don't you think it's kind of a sick joke that the 'Registration Office' is just a glorified closet where they make you do paperwork? Anyway, what's this issue?"

Yowa perked up, hearing his new sensei's voice, "They want to know my address, but..."

Yamato blinked, "Oh. Crap. We didn't even think that far ahead, did we? You certainly can't afford an apartment on early genin pay... Eh. Toss my address on there, Iruka."

Iruka did a double-take. "Ok. Wait, what? He's staying with you?" It was common knowledge to the jounin and socially in-touch chuunin that Yamato was a stickler for his privacy. Few even knew where he lived, and apparently no one had yet to be invited into his house.

Yamato nodded. "Well, he doesn't have anywhere else to go." _Dammit. I do care about this kid. Oh, shit. I have to put up with that blasted CAT now._ "On a totally different note, it seems that with Yowa, you have a proper number of graduates now. Seems that Yowa and the two former leftovers are under me on team 5."

Iruka's jaw dropped. First Yamato allowed someone to live with him, and now he was teaching a team of genin! This was utterly impossible. Iruka began to suspect that Genma had slipped something into his water bottle again. "You... are a jounin-sensei?" To Iruka's credit, his voice only cracked from disbelief once.

Yamato fixed Iruka with a glare that read quite clearly, 'Do not fucking ask.' Yowa then turned towards Yamato, "Eh? I'm on a team!" The boy was completely taken by surprise.

Yamato looked at Yowa, puzzled. "Well, yea. All genin are assigned to a team of three, under a jounin-sensei. Me, in your case. Speaking of. Iruka, can I get names for our other teammates?"

Yowa appeared even more surprised at the announcement that not only were there teams, but **he was on one**. Iruka managed to shake himself from his state of shock to look up the other two unassigned genin. "Hmm. Uchiha Hikari, and Hyuuga Sokotto. Team 5, led by... Shitaki Yamato." The last pause being the small break it took Iruka to re-convince himself that he was not dreaming. Drugged, maybe. But not dreaming.

Yamato winced upon hearing the names of his new students. "Ahh... a Hyuuga and an Uchiha... Aggh... She sticks me with spoiled little bloodline clan brats?" Yamato's voice exhibited a remarkable ability to go from resigned frustration to anger. _Boy. I must really like this brat. I'm going to put up with spoiled little genius babies from the big clans for him. Oh well. At least no one will ever know WHY I'm doing it. My reputation is taking enough damage from this as it is._ Yamato sighed. "Oh well. Guess I'll pick them up on Monday, after the big honking speech. Speaking of, Yowa, you have to go to that. Iruka here is going to talk about how important being a Konoha shinobi is. Then I suppose I'll get to ramble to our new team. Oh well. I'm tired, and it's late. See ya tomorrow, Iruka-san." With that, Yamato turned and walked out.

Yowa, used to this by now, hopped from the stool, and chased after his new sensei and host. "Bye, Iruka-san!"

Iruka sat there for a moment, after watching them leave. This was completely contradictory to everything he had seen and heard about Yamato. The man was almost as mysterious as Hatake Kakashi, though without the same legion of fangirls. Yet. But a mystery was something that the gossiping Konoha nins loved to investigate, and so Yamato was the topic of much discussion. He was a loner, by most people's reckoning. He took on A-rank missions solo with regularity matched only by Kakashi. The two were an unusual pair. Alike in some ways, opposites in others. Somehow the two had become friends. But apparently even Kakashi had yet to see the inside of Yamato's home. The interior of his house had become almost as popular a mystery as the state of Kakashi's face and neck. Several had tried to enter the enigma of a house; few had escaped uninjured, and none had so much as glimpsed an inside wall. Yamato was apparently quite skilled at trap setting. All in all, Yamato was a person that favored his solitude and privacy, and had some terrible objection to teaching a team. Yet instantly, with the appearance of this boy, he seemed to have reversed entirely. Iruka's mouth opened in shock. It couldn't be that... Yamato was a pedophile! Shaking such ludicrous thoughts from his head, Iruka settled back into his paperwork. He still had a good hour to go, and this needed to be done before the ceremonies tomorrow morning. He loved teaching, certainly, even though the kids could get... aggravating. He just wished there weren't so damned much paperwork.


	3. Chapter 3

Legal Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There would be much much more sex in it if I did.

Fan Disclaimer: Slight AU (Explained in a second) and DRIPPING with original characters. Pairings I like: Naru/Hina, Shika/Ino. Sasuke is a bastard, and Sakura is useless and whiny. You have been warned.

Author's Notes:

Slight adjustments to the universe: Itachi didn't kill the ENTIRE Uchiha clan, just most of it. I think that the odds that the whole clan was in the compound at the SAME night is pretty silly, so Itachi just murdered his parents and everyone else nearby cept Sasuke.

This fic starts out about 6 months after the 3 years starts. So Naruto leaves with Jiraiya and 6 months later, this stuff starts. Don't worry, I don't really think Naruto is capable of being away from Ichiraku for 3 years straight. He'll pop in. :D

Thanks to Alphacat, who owns Yowamushi, and is my awesome Assistant Author and Beta Reader. And proofreader. He's the one that gets to put up with my screams of rage when he discovers that every single line of speech in the chapter is missing the comma before it.

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After a few minutes of walking, the pair arrived at a fairly large, but mostly normal looking house. Well, normal if you ignored the fact that the fence had several kunai and shuriken embedded in it, the occasional dried blood patch, and various large scorch marks. "God dammit." Yamato said, "I leave for like two weeks, and someone tries to sneak into my house."

Yowa's ears perked up. "People try to sneak into your house?"

Yamato nodded, looking annoyed. "Yes. No idea how it started, but now the fact that no one has managed to get in is attracting morons from all over the city. It's stupid, really. One of these days some stupid genin is going to try it and get himself killed. I **am** pretty damn good with traps and seals. The only building in Konoha better trapped than my house is the ANBU headquarters."

Yowa tilted his head. "Oh. So... why are we just standing here, 30 feet away?"

"Because the seals aren't attuned to you, so you need to stay back here for a minute. And make sure the cat stays there too."

Yowa, looking puzzled, asked, "Your seals trigger on anything going nearby? What about everyone just walking by?"

Yamato shook his head. "Not normally, no. But I have to configure the door seal to let you in, and when you attempt to change the seal, it shoots fire at everything nearby."

Yowa thought for a moment. "In case... someone tries to tamper with it?"

Yamato nodded again. "Exactly. Now then, I need a drop of blood. For the seals." Yowa nodded, and held out his hand. He winced a bit as Yamato pricked his finger with a kunai, and smeared the blood on his thumb. "The cat too." Yamato's eyes widened in surprise as Genki raised one of her paws while he said that. "Well, ok then." He gently poked the cat's paw with the knife, and put the blood on his other thumb.

"Ok. Now then, you stay here." Yamato preformed a quick series of hand seals, saying, "Hiroke Koutetsu no jutsu." A shimmer of reddish orange energy flickered across him for a moment.

He walked to the front of the house and stood directly in front of the door. Yamato took a deep breath, made the proper hand seal, and shouted "Kai!". The front of the building seemed to strip away like a coat of paint as the illusion was dispelled, revealing a house covered in intricate seals. After the last of the seals were revealed, Yamato was suddenly lit on fire. Yowa gasped in shock at the sight of his new teacher up in flames. But... it didn't seem to be hurting him. He was just... on fire. "Don't worry," Yamato called back to Yowa, "that jutsu I used a second ago protects me from fire."

He then dragged his thumbs across an empty circle in the seals right above the doorknob, making an X with the different bloods. Then he pricked his index finger and drew a + with his own blood across the X. The circle pulsed for a moment, and the eight-pointed star disappeared. As it did, the fire around Yamato flickered and went out. "Ok then. That'll give you an hour. Come on in, and hurry up. The fire ward will turn back on in about 45 seconds."

Yowa ran over to the door, Genki following. "Umm... an hour isn't a very long time..."

Yamato chuckled, "Of course not. But it will give me enough time to recode the master seal to let you stay." He opened the door as he said this, and walked in. The door opened into a fairly normal living room, with a couch that looked fairly old, but not very used. There were a couple of hallways leading off, and an open doorway into a kitchen. There were also two doors, on opposite sides of the room. The only things that marked the living room as odd were the various weapons, mostly katanas, hanging from the wall. A couple of them even had rings of seals around them.

Yowa looked intrigued by the various weapons. Yamato followed his gaze. "Ah. First rule of the house. Anything with a seal around it? Don't touch it. Don't even go near it."

Yowa turned to look down at Yamato as he sat down on the couch. "Why, more protection seals?"

Yamato, doing something with the rug in the middle of the floor, responded, "Well, yes. But protection for you. I have a lot of really dangerous cursed stuff in here. For one thing, that closet there?" He pointed to a small door near the doorway to the kitchen. "Don't open it. Ever."

Yowa thought for a moment. "That's why you keep the place locked up. So people don't get into the dangerous stuff in here."

Yamato nodded, smiling. "That's one of the reasons, yea." _Nice deduction._ "I also like my privacy, and there are a lot of old and dangerous seals in here. Not to mention my library contains stuff that makes the Scroll of Forbidden Seals look like genin moves. Speaking of, that's the second rule. Any scrolls with a red case are totally off limits."

Yowa nodded. He glanced towards the closet, curiosity obvious in his eyes. "...What's in there?"

Yamato looked up, and saw where his eyes were pointed. "A sword. Forged with a shard of a weapon so dangerous that wars were fought over it. Wars that the gods got involved in. This one only has a tiny fragment of the original, but it's still enough to drive someone insane if they're not prepared."

Yowa made a soft 'oh' sound, "If it's so dangerous, why do you keep it around?"

Yamato paused in his work, and his eyes appeared suddenly distant. "...Because eventually, one of a couple people is going to come after me, and I'm going to need it." _And hopefully still be in control of my mind after._ He shook his head for a second, then finished what he was doing. Yowa could see that Yamato had been disarming several traps under the rug before he moved it. "Grr. Stupid things are a bitch to disarm. Have to disarm them before I can move the rug, but I can hardly get to them with the rug there. Anyway, get over here really quick. Cat too."

Yowa hopped off the couch and took the two steps to stand next to Yamato. "What do I have to do?" Genki followed as well, and sat right next to Yowa's ankles.

Yamato had his eyes closed, breathing deeply. "Just stand there for a sec. You're right in the circle." Seeing no circle, just wooden floor, Yowa was confused, but stood where he was. Yamato threw his hands up into another seal, shouting "Kai!". Yowa watched in amazement as all the surfaces in the room peeled away to even more seals, just like the front of the house. Yamato stood up, panting slightly. "Hoo... Now **that** was tiring... definitely going to bed after we're done here. Now then, stand right there." Yamato then performed a long series of seals, but very strange ones.

Yowa noticed that hardly any of these seals were in the standard set of twelve. "What are those seals you're doing?"

Yamato responded after a moment, "Beats me. They go with these seals on the house. This is really old stuff, mostly forgotten. We'll call em family secrets, yea. Anyway. I don't know much about them, but I do know how to work them. I couldn't tell you what these hand seals are, or how to heavily adjust the seal on the house here, but I know how to use them."

Yowa opened his mouth to ask another question, but stopped short when he saw how uncomfortable Yamato was about this topic. Yamato then stopped his seals, and smirked. "This is the funny part. Unlike most stuff with seals, this doesn't take any blood." He then poked Yowa in the forehead suddenly, and Genki's head with his other hand. The seals pulsed white for a moment. The young boy felt a sudden... he wasn't quite sure. It was almost a wave of dizziness, but it vanished instantly. Genki seemed to feel the same thing, letting out a confused "Mrrowwrrr...?"

"Tada," Yamato pronounced. "You are now attuned to the house. First person ever, except for me. And the first cat, period. Congrats."

Yowa's eyes opened wide when he heard that he was the first person to receive this 'honor'. "Wow... Thanks!"

Yamato chuckled, "Don't mention it. Now then, the hard part. I have to feed chakra back into the seals to turn the illusion back on. It will also re-cover the outdoor ones. Speaking of, I really hope that no one has walked by in the last minute or so." Yamato touched a small cluster of seals with two fingers, which then began to glow with chakra. After a few seconds, he stood up and wiped the sweat off his forehead as the seals faded from view. "Phew. This is why I don't let people over. I have to take off both the really strong illusions, then turn them back on. It's a pain, I'm exhausted afterwards."

Yowa was still looking as the seals vanished, fascinated. "What sort of stuff do those do? And how do they know not to blow you up? And how are you allowed to have those ones outside? Aren't they dangerous?"

Yamato raised his eyebrow at the barrage of questions, smiling. "Slow down, sheesh. Well, the reason they know not to get us, is that technique I used on you. Most seals would be attuned to specific people, this seal makes you attune to it. I'm not sure what it does exactly, no one has been able to detect the 'mark' it makes, but it's certainly working. It's also really hard for people to fool it, since it works backwards from conventional logic."

Yowa nodded, still fascinated, and happily absorbing the information. Yamato blinked, and looked around. "...The cat is gone." He paused for a moment. "Um... it is house trained, right?"

Yowa laughed. "Yes, she is."

Yamato shrugged, obviously not caring where the cat went then. "Anyway. The seals are legal, Konoha has wonderfully loose laws for defense of property." _Well. Except that one. I think that violates a couple 'Cruel and unusual punishment' laws. And that one. I don't think you're allowed to summon things. Especially not that big._ Yamato yawned, long and loud. "Ok. Time to get to bed. Umm, I guess you can crash on the couch for now, we'll get you a bed at some point. Wonder where I'll put it. Hmm. Anyway, good night. Come get me if you need anything." Yowa nodded, and Yamato walked into one of the hallways and returned with a blanket. "Good thing it's the middle of summer, I don't have enough blankets for two people in winter. Night."

Yowa nodded, and laying down on the couch, pulled the blanket over himself. Yamato walked back into the hallway, wondering. _Hmm. He seems to be adjusting really well, all things considered. The kid is basically starting a new life, and it's been pretty sudden. I suppose he was freaking out a bit on the way back, but I should still keep an eye on him. And the rest of the team. Sheesh, this is gonna be tough. Oh well, teaching might be a new thing for me, but Yowa has to adapt to a whole lot of stuff. Heh. Good night, kid._


End file.
